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Vikings
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The Vikings began to raid their southern neighbors seriously and systematically around 800. These raids, and the subsequent invasions, took many forms and reached out in many directions. In the British Isles and the French parts of the Carolingian Empire, there was a fairly uniform evolution; raids gradually changed from hit-and-run attacks to larger and more ambitious forays in which bands of sailor-raiders carved out holdings or base camps where they might spend the winter. Eventually, by the mid- to late 9th century, the armies grew in size. Many of the men became settlers in the lands where they had first appeared as marauders and raiders. They began to convert to Christianity and either brought families from home or intermarried with the local people.
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The idea of exploration has fascinated humankind for centuries, and in Vikings students will learn why. This is an informational text about the Vikings that ... looks at two famous Vikings, Eric The Red and his son Leif Ericson. The book discusses the life and times of these men and their exploration of many new lands.
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Instead, they resorted to the historical and ethnic fact that the Vikings were descendants of other Germanic peoples; this fact is supported by the shared ethnic-genetic elements, and cultural and linguistic traits, of the Germans, Anglo-Saxons, and Viking Scandinavians. In particular, all these peoples ... had traditions of Germanic paganism and practiced runelore. This common Germanic identity became - and still is - the foundation for much National Socialist iconography. For example, the runic emblem of the SS utilized the sig rune of the Elder Futhark and the youth organization Wiking-Jugend made extensive use of the odal rune. This trend still holds true today (see also fascist symbolism).
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There were no specific "Viking ships" or "Viking longships"; Vikings used any of the common Scandinavian longships. These boats were identical to those used by the Scandinavian defense fleets, known as the ledung. The term "Viking ships" has entered common usage... possibly because of its Romantic associations. It is suspected that most Viking ships had an average length/width ratio of 4.5:1. Scholars also debate whether or not Vikings had cooking fires aboard their ships. There is no evidence connecting any discovered longship to any particular classical Viking raid.
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The neighboring Gower Peninsula has some place names of Norse origin (such as Worms Head; worm is the Norse word for dragon, as the Vikings believed that the serpent-shaped island was a sleeping dragon). Twenty miles (32 km) west of Cardiff on the Vale of Glamorgan coast is the semi-flooded island of Tusker Rock, which takes its name from Tuska, the Viking who established a settlement in the area.
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The Vikings ate a wide range of foodstuffs, but there are no real surprises. Beef, mutton, pork and venison were common meats, and communities close to the coast could expect to widen their diets with fish and shellfish. A heavy bread made from barley flour was common, but there is evidence that at least some people had wheaten bread available to them. It was often the custom to eat gruel - a porridge augmented by scraps of meat as a morning meal. Boiled meat was much more common than roasted, something which was normally only eaten during ceremonies. Boiled sausages known as 'cauldron snakes', were a special delicacy.
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Vikings